Mumbai and its adjoining areas have 5,800 hectares of mangrove land, but the Cell has barely around 25 staffers, including a divisional forest officer, one assistant conservator of forest, three range forest officers, seven forestors and just 12 guards.
Expected to protect, conserve and manage the pristine mangrove stretches of not only Mumbai and adjoining areas but several other districts across Maharashtra, the Mangrove Cell created by the state government in 2012 has been finding it hard to manage its core activities due to lack of basic facilities, besides facing acute staff shortage.
In fact, sources in Mangrove Cell, currently located in a dingy SRA building in Bandra East, even inform that a part of their office is technically an encroachment as they have occupied a few rooms due to lack of an allotted space. There is no field office either for the field staff, they added.
Mumbai and its adjoining areas have 5,800 hectares of mangrove land, but the Cell has barely around 25 staffers, including a divisional forest officer, one assistant conservator of forest, three range forest officers, seven forestors and just 12 guards. In fact, for the entire Maharashtra, the Cell has a staff of just 64 despite its activity extending to Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts.
"For a city like Mumbai, where mangroves are under severe threat, we are grossly understaffed. It's very difficult to manage such huge areas, patrol them, attend court cases, rush to check complaints of mangrove destruction coming from all over, as well as plan educational and awareness drives along with plantations," said an official, adding that soon the Cell would have 10,000 hectares more of mangrove land to look after.
The official said that since the Cell's inception, the number of cases being booked by it has been extremely high and it's sent thousands of demolition notices and razed hundreds of structures from mangrove sites.
"Patrolling the mangrove areas is extremely risky as there have been instances of our staff being attacked. Hence, we can't send one or two men for patrolling or surveying illegal construction, a team has to be sent. But where is the staff? It's sad that the state doesn't think it's important to equip such a motivated Mangrove Cell that has been working dedicatedly," said another official, adding that there have been talks of providing the necessary sanctioned staff by the forest department, but nothing has happened so far.
"We are definitely facing a lot of issues, but we can at least say that we have managed well given the constraints. We have been conducting various activities to restore mangroves and even helped out studies and research along with booking cases of mangrove destruction. Additional staff will only help us raise our activity."
Dahisar activist Harish Pandey, who has been fighting against destruction of mangroves and is also on the state mangrove panel, said, "The Mangrove Cell is extremely prompt and has become a major deterrent force over a period of time. It takes action as soon as a complaint is lodged with it. It's extremely disappointing to know that it is facing such issues."
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